


Bird, Cage, Nest

by EMMegs



Category: Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Tamaki-centric, Two Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-10
Updated: 2014-09-10
Packaged: 2018-02-16 20:38:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2283774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EMMegs/pseuds/EMMegs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"My mother used to tell me that if you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, its yours forever. If it doesn't, it was never meant to be." She was the bird, he was the cage, and it was time for the canary to fly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Freeing the Caged Bird

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Ouran High School Host Club obviously, but then you'd know that because this is a fanfiction website.

" _If you love something let it go. If it comes back to you, its yours forever. If it doesn't, it was never meant to be."_

–

Tamaki had always known that there would be a time when he might have to give Haruhi to another. Even after they started dated. He'd always known that despite how much he loved her and showered her with gifts, they weren't right for each other. He knew that eventually she would become tired with his antics and feeling like she was constantly on a date with her very own father.

He'd tried to change these things about him. But they were a part of who he was.

It seemed that no matter how hard he tried to keep her to himself, she kept being steered in another direction completely. Away from him. And they weren't even conscious of it. It was just natural for them because of the way they complemented each other.

He'd always known that he'd eventually have to give her away to the man that he had come to love as a brother. He just didn't think it would hurt so much.

Tamaki watched them interact from across a battle-worn room over almost a year. Kyoya was still stiff and on-guard.

The more that he talked to the petite brunette the more his on-edge guard lowered itself.

The more his guard lowered the more likely he was to smile.

The more he smiled, the more likely it was to reach his eyes.

The more it reached his eyes, the more she shown.

The more she shown, the more Tamaki's heart and mind ached with the knowledge that he could never – would never – make her shine like she did when she was with his 'brother.' Just like he could never – would never – make him smile the way that he did with her.

But both of them were still restrained, and he was slowly starting to realize that it was because of him.  _He_ was the one putting the road block in their happiness.

So, he came to the decision to remove the road block once and for all.

He let her go.

"Haruhi," he stated on their last date. She looked up from her food at him, chocolate eyes curious and gleaming.  _'But never gleaming in the way they do when she looks at him.'_ He felt a pang in his chest. He had to do this. He had to act for the betterment of her happiness. He wasn't to be selfish. Not to mention, his brother's happiness. "Do you... like Kyoya?"

She chewed slowly, giving him an odd look. "Of course, I do. Why wouldn't I like him? We've been friends for almost four and a half years now."  _Shit_ , he should have known better than to beat around the bush with her. She was the most dense intellectual he knew.

"That's... not what I mean." He drew in a deep breath, but he couldn't do it. "Never mind."

Later that evening he went to Kyoya's to question him in much the same way. "Do you like Haruhi?"

Kyoya answered in much the same way Haruhi had, though there was a spark of alarm in his eyes that told Tamaki that the man knew exactly what he meant. "Of course, I like her."

Tamaki sighed and rephrased the question, "Kyoya, tell me straight out right now... Are you in love with Haruhi?"

The man merely pursed his lips and turned away from the blonde. "No. Where would you get that idea?"

"Stop trying to protect me and tell me the truth." Kyoya stayed where he was, seemingly frozen by his best friend's sudden commanding straight-forwardness. "I can see the way the two of you look at each other. I'm not as stupid as everyone thinks. Now answer me with the truth. Are you in love with her?"

Tamaki actually heard his best friend swallow, a indication of nervousness and anxiety that he knew the dark-haired 20-year-old hated showing, even to him. "I apologize," he finally muttered, a sign of his defeat. "I didn't mean to."

Tamaki, having gotten his hopes up somehow, felt them become dashed. So it was true, he was getting in the way of his closest friends' happiness. "Don't apologize," he said quietly, slowly regaining his strength along with his voice as he strode to stand beside him.

"She's your girlfriend."

"She's in love with  _you_." Kyoya faltered for the second time, this time partially out of shock.

"She told  _you_ that?"

"No. But I can tell she does. That's why I'm going to break up with her." The bespectacled man stared at him like he was a complete lunatic. "Because, I know she'll be happy if I let her go. Whether she comes back or not is her decision. And I don't care if she does or not as long as she's happy. As long as both of you are."

Tamaki turned his violet-blue eyes to Kyoya's onyx ones. The amount of incredible agony almost tore the Ohtori to pieces, but he understood why the blonde had to do this. "My mother used to tell me that if you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, its yours forever. If it doesn't, it was never meant to be," Tamaki said quietly. "I know you'll take care of her."

Having said all that needed to be said, he stood and walked out of the Ohtori mansion, ignoring his car waiting in the driveway. He went directly to Haruhi's apartment and greeted Ranka politely when he answered the door. "Is Haruhi home, Ranka-san?"

Ranka's eyes narrowed. He'd always preferred Kyoya over him. "Yes," the red-head finally answered begrudgingly, trudging into the house and leaving the door open for Tamaki to let himself in. Haruhi was sitting on the couch with a rather large law book sitting on her lap. She jumped up quickly when she noticed that she had company.

"Tamaki-sempai!" He almost winced. The habit of her calling him sempai had been broken a year ago, yet the honorific still jumped out every once in a while when he surprised her. "I didn't know you were coming! Did you forget something?"

"No," he replied, scratching the back of his head, "Actually, I have something I need to talk to you about..."

"Oh... well. Um..." She strode over to the door and slipped on her shoes and coat, knowing that she wouldn't be able to talk with him without her father eavesdropping. "Dad! I'm going out for a bit! Don't let the rice burn!"

She grabbed him by the arm and left without waiting for a reply. She led him away from her apartment toward a nearby park and sat on a swing after reassuring herself that her father hadn't followed them. He watched her a moment before striding over and putting what he wanted to say to her in the simplest terms possible and hope that he wasn't wrong. "I'm breaking up with you," he stated clearly, grabbing the chains of her swing in order to keep himself steady.

Haruhi's eyes grew as wide as saucers. "What?" she asked incredulously. Perhaps she hadn't heard him right...?

"Haruhi, I'm breaking up with you. I was going to at lunch... But I chickened out because I didn't want to accidentally be wrong. But now I know I'm not."

"What the hell are you blabbering on about?"

"You... You're in love with Kyoya." She gaped wordlessly, jaw finally hanging open. He almost wished that she was cry and say that he was wrong. That she would do something besides stare at him as he stumbled over his words in an attempt to piece together all the raging thoughts in his head. "It didn't... make any sense at first. But you always sort of...  _gravitate_ to him. When we go to parties or just go on an outing with our friends. I always find you straying from my side and wandering over to talk to him. And I understand why now. You  _glow_ when you're around him, Haruhi, and it's the same for him."

She looked away from him.  _'Oh God,'_ he thought anxiously,  _'I was wrong. I was wrong and I just ruined everything.'_ Now he really was hoping that she would start crying and call him a stupid moron. But no, even if she was heartbroken, Haruhi wouldn't cry. That wasn't like her. After a few moments he had to ask, "Crap. I was wr-?"

"Thank you," she interrupted sincerely, smiling widely at him. He blanched involuntarily. Why was she thanking him? She chuckled at his expression and murmured, "I was preparing myself for you to propose to me. Preparing to turn you down that is. Though I've never been able to work up the guts to leave you. You saved me the trouble of having to break your heart." She really was meant for Kyoya if she could make a statement like that and still keep a smile on her face.

"I already broke it myself," he muttered under his breath so quietly that she almost didn't hear.

She swallowed slowly and stood up from her seat, effectively making him step back. She lifted herself up on the tips of her toes so she could kiss his cheek. "I'm sorry," she whispered. He felt tears coming to his eyes but held them back for her sake. He didn't want to leave her with a guilty conscience, not when so much new happiness was waiting for her. "Who knows," she added with half of a scared kind of laugh, "Maybe all three of us are completely wrong about all of this and I'll come back."

Tamaki shook his head, already accepting the fact that she was never meant to be his. "You won't." She smiled sadly and stroked his cheek with a single finger. "I won't let you come back because that will mean making him suffer."

"You really are the princely knight," she mumbled, letting her hand fall.

He sighed impatiently. "Haruhi. What are you waiting for? Go to him already."

She grinned at him. "But I have to tell my dad that you broke my heart first," she exclaimed teasingly.

His eyes widened. He barely caught the mischievous look in her eye before she took off toward her house again. "You wouldn't!"

"I would!" she called back, laughing as she ran freely. He watched her, feeling the snow that was starting to fall around them chill his cheeks. Somehow, as he watched her run and laugh happily he couldn't help but associate her with a canary just newly freed from it's cage.

She was the bird, he had been the cage, and she was headed to her new nest.


	2. Nesting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from." For the cage had turned into a bird and then flown off with its ex-captive to find a nest of it's own.

" _What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from." -T.S. Elliot_

–

Tamaki watched from the sidelines as Kyoya and Haruhi tentatively stepped into the beginnings of their courtship. After blatantly telling them to get together and be happy, it had taken them nearly a month for them to actually do it. And that was only after he had encouraged them even more.

"Tamaki!" Haruhi exasperatedly had exclaimed, "You just broke up with me! Do you think I'm going to disrespect you by going directly into a relationship with your best friend?"

"I give you permission! Just do it!" he had replied. The next day she had finally taken initiative and asked Kyoya quietly if he would like to go to coffee later, with Tamaki jumping excitedly from across the room. She had glared at him, only the slightest brushing of a blush on her face as she angrily turned her back to the blonde and back to who Tamaki already was wanting to dub as her future-husband. The stoic man had raised an eyebrow, glanced over at the blonde and then accepted quietly.

In all truth, he was actually just putting up face and pushing them together to relieve the own ache inside of him. The terrible burn within his chest when he saw them, so obviously  _wanting_ each other but still not acting because they didn't want to accidentally hurt him.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Haruhi had asked concernedly on one instance when he'd been at Kyoya's apartment when Haruhi had come over to spend time with her boyfriend. Her eyes shown with the same worry that they always had, his heart broke a little more knowing that he wouldn't have her anymore.

"Yes, yes," he muttered, shooing them towards the door. "I'm fine! Go on to your date! Have fun!" The two had looked at him with slight skepticism before Kyoya gave him a lingering look and carefully led Haruhi toward the door.

"Feel free to stay as long as you need to, just don't mess with any of my things," his best friend had called over his shoulder. He had stayed. He's stayed there in Kyoya's room for at least an hour, thinking and very close to crying and hoping, for a time that continued for nearly a year, that soon seeing them happy together would bring him great joy instead of this other-worldly hurt inside of his chest.

Tamaki watched from the sidelines as he finally was able to move on a year later. Though they weren't the most affectionate couple, he knew that both of them cared for the other even though occasionally they'd get on one another's nerves at times.

When they would have a fight, Kyoya would often be angry long after Haruhi had given in to the forgiveness that had already start blossoming within her at the very beginning. And on the times when it was the other way around, Kyoya was gruffly lounge around at his house, never saying anything about it but still wanting to be around him while Haruhi was at the twins' no doubt doing the exact same thing.

Finally the Ohtori would burst, "Was she ever like this with you?" The utter frustration in his voice being enough to remind him that at one point there had been a 'Tamaki and Haruhi' and not a 'Kyoya and Haruhi.' That he wouldn't have that again. The very statement reminded him of his own frustration when he and Haruhi would fight, and it would start that ache he wished wasn't so familiar but had thought he had extinguished long ago.

Kyoya would look at him while all these thoughts went through his head, and then he would open his mouth – no doubt to apologize for not thinking out how the blonde might feel – only to be cut off abruptly when he finally answered with a slight chuckle. "Yes. She was like this with me. She's stubborn, but if you leave her alone long enough she cools off and becomes approachable again. "

He knew exactly what the only thing wrong with their relationship was. Both of them had enough pride in them that they could be at war for centuries without running out of it. They could launch nukes full of pride at the planet at by the end of it there would be more of both of their pride left than there was ground to stand on.

Haruhi had never been the one to reconcile things when they'd been dating, it had always been him. Somehow he doubted that it was any different with Kyoya, and considering he also didn't ever like being the one to apologize first, they both just kind of stayed away from each other until they'd both cool off enough to unanimously come to an agreement.

"Well," he had added once during one of their fights after Kyoya had asked the inevitable question, "It could also do with the fact that both of you have more pride than a bull elephant during mating season."

And one time, oh one terrifying time, they quarreled so fiercely that it almost threatened to tear them apart. Tamaki had actually been the one to go to Kyoya that one time because he had shut himself up in his office and wouldn't talk to anyone – which was a sign that he was severely upset about the entire thing. The Host Club King wouldn't have even known about it if Hunny hadn't texted him and told him that Haruhi was with him and Mori.

"Kyoya! Open the door!" he called anxiously, jiggling the doorknob. He heard nothing but silence within. "I know you're upset, dammit! Don't try to hide from me and open the door!"

"Tamaki," the deathly calm voice came from the other side of the door, "If you don't get out of my apartment within the next 30 seconds I will call security, have you beaten to a pulp and thrown out of the building... _Permanently._ "

He sighed. "Just open the door. You know you can't scare me away. I know this entire thing is about Haruhi otherwise you wouldn't have locked yourself in there. Nothing else would upset you that much." Again all was quiet on the Ohtori's side. Then the door opened and he found him sitting at his desk, scribbling angrily on a paper. "What happened?" Stubborn as ever, he pursed his lips and stayed completely silent. "I can't help if you don't te-"

"I don't want your help," Kyoya spat finally, "Goddammit, Tamaki, I never  _did_. I would have been fine watching  _you_ marry her."

His blood went cold, knowing in deep within him that something was horribly wrong if he was referencing to how he had pushed him and his girlfriend together. "You don't honestly mean that."

"No. I do," the now 23-year-old growled. Tamaki felt sick to his stomach.

"Did you- You didn't break up did you?" The very thought sent him spiraling into an abyss. They'd been together for nearly 3 years now, that was a year longer than he and Haruhi had lasted. They could  _not_ break up. He wouldn't allow it. And if he had to enforce his Daddy powers to ensure that they wouldn't, by God, he'd do it! "Oh God, Kyoya... Mon ami, don't tell me you broke up with her."

"I didn't." Hope rose in his chest. "But I got damn near close to it. This just keeps happening all the time. I'm this close, to being done with it." He held his fingers about an inch apart just to emphasize how much more he could handle.

Tamaki sat and let that digest for a moment. They... Really were fighting this time. Worse than ever before. Before it was just stubbornness and mostly child's play-like anger. Now it was just fury. He gazed at Kyoya for a while, contemplating what this could mean if he didn't intervene. Finally, he spoke softly, in a voice that was hardly above a whisper. "Do you still love her?"

He sighed, sounding more like his father after an exhausting day than ever before. "Sometimes, I question it," he muttered, leaning back away from his desk and turning slowly in his chair to face him. "But, yes, I do."

"Tell her that then."

"You don't understand."

"I understand perfectly well! You're afraid that if she gets any closer, she'll become a weakness or that your father will want to use her! She's afraid that any moment you'll start pushing her away and retreat back behind your mask! For God's sake, Kyoya!  _You're_ supposed to be the smart one! You should be figuring this out by yourself!" He was ranting and he wasn't completely sure if he was anywhere close to being on the mark for the situation. But his words seemed to be having an affect on him so he kept going. " _Talk_ to her. Tell her that you love her. When you're ready for it  _marry_ her. She's worth more than you could possibly own – trust me, I know – so just... Put your damn pride aside and work through your problems,  _together_."

Kyoya stared at seemingly nothing, one hand on his chin with his pointer finger jutting toward his temple, just thinking for several minutes. When he finally came out of his stupor, he muttered, "Dammit Tamaki, you're actually right for once. I hate that."

He shined brilliantly for a moment before the second part of the comment donned on him. "Hey!" he exclaimed, slightly offended. Kyoya merely chuckled and went to pick up his discarded coat. "Call me and tell me how it goes!" he called after him.

Now he stood next to them as they exchanged vows, always the best man. Kyoya was 25 and had a flourishing business that could rival even that of his father's. Haruhi was 24 and a successful beginning lawyer.

And he smiled and clapped and there was almost as many tears running down his face as there was on the bride's father's.

And at the reception, he sat on Kyoya's right side, getting ready to give the toast that he'd had prepared three years ago, knowing that some day he'd have to use it.

"I always knew that I'd be up here giving this toast to them some day," he started out jokingly, "In fact, I knew the moment I let Haruhi go that I'd never get her back. I knew even while we dated that I'd have to give her up but I didn't think it was going to be to  _Kyoya Ohtori_ of all people." That stirred up a few chuckles. "In all seriousness, the end is always a beginning – or multiple beginnings in this case." He shot an affectionate look at his own girlfriend of 9 months, Toshiko. "And I wish them the best of happiness with the end of their premarital relationship, and the beginning of their marriage."

As he held up his glass, he smiled the biggest grin the world had ever seen and cheerfully declared, "To Haruhi and Kyoya!" The room echoed it back. He downed his champagne in one gulp and sat himself down again, shooting a beaming smile at the happy couple. They kissed, and, God, he felt that happiness well inside him that he'd always hoped for from the very beginning.

For the cage had turned into a bird and then flown off with its ex-captive to find a nest of it's own.


End file.
